Venice-Art-Tours Blog

Christos Vaskrase in Cambridge...

We were gone for 8 days to Cambridge for our Pascha week:  8 days of matins, vespers, liturgies, vigils, confessions, incense, singing, fasting, and related activities relating to Christ's Resurrection. We go every year, exchanging our place here in Venice for a house in Cambridge.                         Picture above of St Ephraim's 2007 Pascha

And every year is different. People have gone, but also new faces are everywhere. However, the joy of Pascha never changes. This year we were astounded at the number of Russians and Romanians at the services, especially at the Midnight Pascha Vigil. The Parish of St Epraim the Syrian uses the chapel at Westcott House which is a post-grad training school for Anglican clergy. The chapel there serves as our church on Sundays but at other days reverts to the needs of the Anglican students. It has pews which could accommodate a maximum of 50 people. For Pascha week, we remove the pews to create standing room. On Pascha evening attendence was approximately 250 people. Lights are all extinguished except for one candle for those reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Shoulder to shoulder: Russians, English, Romanians, Greeks, Serbs, all holding unlit candles as prayers and texts are read adumbrating the Resurrection. Readings are in many languages: English, Russian, Greek, Romanian, German, French, and there is a great sense of anticipation as midnight approaches. Just before midnight, the priest, deacon, readers, servers all shed their dark vestments while on the altar and vest themselves in bright Resurrection colours of gold and silver. At midnight, Father Raphael emerges with a lit candle from which all our candles are lit and he proclaims loudly, "Christ has Risen! Christos Vaskrase! Christos Anesti!" and we shout in reply "Indeed He has Risen! Vaistinou Vaskrase! Alithos Anesti!" and the choir sings in three languages the Easter troparion, "Christ has Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs He has given life!"  Thick incense fills the air. We then all process around the grounds of Westcott House with our lighted candles, singing the troparion over and over, no doubt waking the Anglican soon-to-be-clerics. The service continues inside, now all brightly lit. Fr Raph then reads the Paschal Sermon of St. John Chrysostom:

If any man be devout and loveth God,
Let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast!
If any man be a wise servant,
Let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord.

If any have laboured long in fasting,
Let him how receive his recompense.
If any have wrought from the first hour,
Let him today receive his just reward.
If any have come at the third hour,
Let him with thankfulness keep the feast.
If any have arrived at the sixth hour,
Let him have no misgivings;
Because he shall in nowise be deprived therefore.
If any have delayed until the ninth hour,
Let him draw near, fearing nothing.
And if any have tarried even until the eleventh hour,
Let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness.

For the Lord, who is jealous of his honour,
Will accept the last even as the first.
He giveth rest unto him who cometh at the eleventh hour,
Even as unto him who hath wrought from the first hour.
And He showeth mercy upon the last,
And careth for the first;
And to the one He giveth,
And upon the other He bestoweth gifts.
And He both accepteth the deeds,
And welcometh the intention,
And honoureth the acts and praises the offering.

Wherefore, enter ye all into the joy of your Lord;
Receive your reward,
Both the first, and likewise the second.
You rich and poor together, hold high festival!
You sober and you heedless, honour the day!
Rejoice today, both you who have fasted
And you who have disregarded the fast.
The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously.
The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.
Enjoy ye all the feast of faith:
Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness.

Let no one bewail his poverty,
For the universal Kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one weep for his iniquities,
For pardon has shown forth from the grave.
Let no one fear death,
For the Saviour's death has set us free.
He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it.

By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive.
He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh.
And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry:
Hell, said he, was embittered
When it encountered Thee in the lower regions.

It was embittered, for it was abolished.
It was embittered, for it was mocked.
It was embittered, for it was slain.
It was embittered, for it was overthrown.
It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains.
It took a body, and met God face to face.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

O Death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is risen, and thou art overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead,
Is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be glory and dominion
Unto ages of ages.

Then the Divine Liturgy is celebrated, punctuated by cries of "Christos Vaskrase! Vaistinou Vaskrase!"

By 3:30 AM we make it home, tired but happy, throats hoarse from crying "Indeed He is Risen!"

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Back to earth---I report on some more excesses of government regulation that we ran into in England's green and getting to be unpleasant land. There was the family who over-filled their rubbish wheelie-bin by 4 inches and who received a £40 fine for doing so. Then there was the Co-Op supermarket supervisor who was forced to resign (after 23 yrs on the job). Seems a customer tried to purchase 4 bunches of flowers, of which one was 2 days out of it's sell-by date. The check-out clerk asked the supervisor if it was okay to sell the out of date bunch. The supervisor's sin was to remove the bar code from the offending bunch and to give the flowers, gratis, to the customer, saying they were going to be tossed anyway. Oh-oh. Don't do that in England...the flowers were ... out - of - date, dammit. She was fired.  Let's all join in.... Land of Hope and Glo-ry! Mo-ther of the Free!...

Savonarola in Venice...

There is no historical evidence that Fr. Girolamo Savonarola (21 September 1452 to 23 May 1498) ever came to Venice. This past week I re-decorated my office and some of the clutter had to go and among it was my statue (almost life-size) of the Dominican priest which I constructed about a year ago. Savonarola is one of my heroes. I felt that outside our building, in Campo S. Pantalon, would be a suitable site to re-erect Fr. Giralamo. So at 6:35 yesterday morning, the deed was accomplished. I placed him atop a Venetian waste bin (see the photos). It was my gift to the city. When the streetsweepers (spazzini) arrived at 7AM, they were quite amazed and had a confab to discuss what to do. What they did was to (unceremoniously) remove him from his pedestal (boo!) and leave him to await the garbage boat.

Savonarola was the spiritual and political leader of Florence after Lorrenzo Medici died (1494). He is famous for his writings, his sermons (which Michaelangelo consumed while he was working on the Sistine Chapel) and his colossal dispute with the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI. Savonarola was pious, charismatic, a great orator, and a leader. Some would say he is infamous for his bonfires of the vanities upon which he invited citizens of Florence to toss their "obscene" artwork and books during the Carnival period. It is greatly unfair, however, to call him a "book-burner" as Florentines voluntarily surrendered their obscenities to the fire. There were only two bonfires, one each in 1497 and 1498. To hear people talk you would think there was a bonfire every night and that Savonarola's minions invaded houses looking for copies of Peyton Place.

In The Burning of the Vanities, historian Desmond Seward sums up Savonarola's life:

"If short lived, his achievements were extraordinary. Realising the Church was heading for disaster and finding himself leader in Florence, he tried to avert it by turning the city into  beacon of renewal through making men and women to live as Christians. The constitution he introduced (in Florence), however clumsy, was arguably the most representative in the period between antiquity and the American Revolution. Even if his clairvoyance failed him at the end, to a large extent most of his predictions came true...

In the last analysis, Savonarola had much in common with Francis of Assisi, although no two humans could have been more different. Like Francis, he was simply putting Christianity into practice, but while Francis appealed to the heart, the Dominican spoke to the intellect. In many ways Savonarola stood for Catholicism at its best, just as Borgia embodied Catholicism at its worst."

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While I am speaking of honorary statues, Laurie and I fabricated a life-size Dr. Samuel Johnson while I was living in London in 1998. When completed we had an unveiling in my garden and invited special friends including dignitaries. We invited the local MP, Norman Lamont, Chancellor of the Exchequer, but he was a no show. But the rest of us enjoyed Poonsh (as the Doctor would pronounce it) and a good handful of Johnson readings. Dr Johnson usually spent time indoors and he sat at the dining table. Often Laurie, Dr. J and I could be seen from the street enjoying our repast and engaging in witty table-talk (most of it Johnson's or Laurie's).

Here's the pic. Laurie likes this quote of his: "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Laurie took the picture. 

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And in case you thought my rants in past blogs against British idiocy and political correctness were at an end, think again:This was a news item last week in England-

"Patriotic squaddie Craig Briggs has been barred from joining the police — because he’s got 'ENGLAND' tattooed on his arm.  

The Iraq veteran, 22, had wanted to be a cop since childhood and was advised to join the Army to get experience first. But when he applied to the cops he was told: “Unfortunately, some people feel intimidated by the word England.”  Craig, who has just completed 4½ years with the 3rd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment, said: “I am shocked and disgusted. I don’t understand how it can cause offence. It is our country, after all.”

Craig applied to join Greater Manchester Police shortly before returning to civilian status this month. When he admitted he had a tattoo, he was asked to send a photo of the inch-high Gothic letters spelling ENGLAND on the underside of his right forearm. He was later told he had been rejected by the recruitment department. It wrote: “Home Office policy precludes applications with tattoos on lower arm, hand, face or neck that are prominent, which may cause offence and/or invite provocation from the public or colleagues.”

Craig said that the Manchester force’s senior recruitment consultant told him: “A family who aren’t of English origin who see "England" on your arm could feel you might discriminate against them.  We live in a diverse society and try to ensure we give everybody equality.”

Craig said, “I’ve been told I could get the tattoo altered so it doesn’t spell England any more".

The Sun